By Sally Fahey
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the leading expert on COVID-19 in the United States told Stadium he found the plan to play games at Walt Disney World Resort “quite creative” and potentially a mold for other sports to follow.
Fauci is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and has cautioned against large gatherings during the COVID-19 crisis. He explained how sports could return this calendar year back in April with the same basic stipulations that the NBA has proposed.
Fauci to Stadium:
“I actually have looked at that plan and it’s really quite creative what they are really trying to do — and I think they might very well be successful with it — is to create a situation where it is as safe as it possibly could be for the players by creating this bubble. Essentially testing everybody, make sure that you start with a baseline of everybody being negative and trying to make sure that there is no influx into that cohort of individuals and do a tournament-type play.
“It’s not the classic basketball season, but certainly for the people who are thirsting for basketball [and] who love basketball the way I do, it’s something that I think is a sound plan. I was very pleased to see that the intent was not reckless at all. They really wanted to make sure that the safety of the players and the people associated with the players was paramount. So I think that you might be able to do something like that with basketball. Could you extrapolate that to some of the other sports possibly? I think they should look at that model, see how it works, and then take it from there. Maybe modifications of that for some of the other sports.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci told @Stadium he is supportive of the NBA’s restart plan: “It’s quite creative.. I think they might very well be quite successful with it… They really wanted to make sure that the safety of the players was paramount.” pic.twitter.com/qwo5bCDrVt
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 13, 2020
